


To See the Sea

by MayumiSato



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: M/M, USUKUS twice per year event
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-13
Updated: 2017-09-13
Packaged: 2018-12-27 17:23:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,818
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12085740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MayumiSato/pseuds/MayumiSato
Summary: Even the grumpiest Queen of Spades of all History deserves to have fun sometimes. At least, that’s what Alfred thinks and that’s why he won’t waste a opportunity to make Arthur go out of the castle and have a great day. Warnings!: Bad words and the boys staring hard at each other’s bodies.





	To See the Sea

_To See The Sea_

 

 

 **T** he King of Spades tended to foreign affairs. They were responsible for making agreements with other kingdoms, meeting new political figures, going to diplomatic meetings and and so on. Therefore, to be able to attend to their duties, a future King of Spades spent their childhood and adolescence studying History, diplomacy and multiple languages, traveling and getting to know different places to become familiar with different cultures.

The Queen of Spades, on the other hand, tended to internal affairs. They were responsible for dealing with the kingdom’s Ministers, giving warnings to the population, organizing local events, and so on. Therefore, a future Queen of Spades spent their childhood and adolescence inside the castle, studying their kingdom’s legislation, History and economy, raised to always be in their castle at the disposal of their people.

Professionally, this was a system that worked for the monarchs. In personal aspects, however, Alfred Frederick Jones, the current King of the great kingdom of Spades, thought it really sucked that Artie, his Queen, could never leave the castle because of his obligations. Not that his almost hermit’s behaviour was completely the regulation’s fault. Artie simply was the most obsessed with his work as the Queen in the entire History of the kingdom. He had no time for games (allegedly).

Since Alfred and Arthur had been betrothed to each other from birth, they had known each other since they were children. Alfred remembered being a toddler and seeing Arthur, who was only a year older than him, locked in a study room, surrounded by books. Arthur had barely learned to talk when he begun to read non-ston.

Alfred always insisted that Arthur should one day go out with him to see new places outside the palace. Maybe simply stop studying a little and take a day to just play hide and seek with him in the hallways. Sadly, all those invitations were promptly rejected in the course of their childhood and adolescence.

Alfred thought that this would change in their early twenties, after marriage and their coronation. It didn’t. Surprisingly, the coronation only made Arthur even more serious. Now he was always working or studying, at the most taking a break for tea or checking the palace’s corridors to see if everything was running smoothly. There were few things he did that weren’t related to his work and, according to him, Alfred should be grateful and flattered to know that one of the few things Arthur allowed himself to occupy his little free time with was Alfred himself.

Maybe it was because Alfred was the King, maybe it was because they were old friends, maybe it was just out of pity because Alfred had such an old and obvious crush on him. Whatever Arthur’s reasons were, even if Alfred wanted to talk about totally unprofessional stuff or just tease his husband a little bit, Arthur never threw him out of his office. He let Alfred approach him more than anyone, and he was always willing to receive him, no matter how busy he might be.

So Alfred continued to go see him.

During Summer, these unannounced visits to Arthur's office became more frequent, as Alfred got easily annoyed by the heat. That heavy traditional clothing he needed to use even at home because of court etiquette probably helped a lot with it. Not to mention that he hated spending summers cornered inside the palace when he could be doing so many fun things outside. Fortunately, following Arthur around served as a quick distraction to help him ignore the bad sides of summer.

The only problem with that scheme was…

“That’s enough, alright??? You came here, I'm counting, eight times just today! How long do you intend to keep on talking to me? I can no longer stand to see you coming here just to complain because you're not swimming in a tropical island surrounded by girls!”

... Artie was also very annoyed by the heat.

On the particular day in which they had this conversation, the weather was pretty hot AND moist and the whole palace felt like a huge boiler. To make matters worse, Arthur's completely closed office, filled with books, was one of the hottest rooms in the castle. It was surprising that Arthur had not been cooked there yet. Alfred at least had taken off his coat, but Arthur was still in full uniform, definitely approaching death by each second.

Alfred wanted to help him, positioning himself behind his chair and blowing on his neck from time to time, but Arthur kept shooing him away like a fly whenever he did it, which made Alfred stop out of fear of being expelled from that room and settled for just standing behind him, leaning on his chair with his head next to his shoulder.

"Hey! I didn’t say I wanted to be surrounded by girls!" Alfred protested with a sullen face, lightly pushing Arthur's chair. “You added this part to what I’ve said on your own accord for whatever reason! Maybe it's you who has a repressed desire to go to the ocean and be surrounded by girls!”

Arthur let out a dry chuckle, rolling his eyes.

"I do not care about girls except as my friends, family, or citizens who deserve to be respected.” he said, going back to flipping through one of the books on his desk. His movement to lean down to see the pages better made Alfred see a few drops of sweat trickling down his neck and how his skin looked red there. Despite his nonchalant behaviour about it, the heat was really affecting Arthur.

"So... you still have the repressed desire to go to the sea, then?" Alfred realized and furrowed his eyebrows, raising his eyes from his neck to stare at him expectantly.

Arthur denied that he was interested in seeing girls. He didn’t say anything about the ocean.

In response, Arthur's eyes widened and his eyebrows jumped for a moment. He seemed to have been taken aback. He tried to disguise this, raising his shoulders in an intimidating posture and frantically adjusting his coat to look more guarded and formal, but the effect was almost the opposite. He looked more clumsy and still surprised.

"... I ... I did not say that." he stammered, turning his face slightly away from Alfred.

"I know, but you didn’t deny it either.” Alfred pointed with an amused smile. He could recognize an opening in Arthur when he saw one. His Queen had just let a precious information escape. “So you like going to the sea, Artie! Nice to know!”

“I don’t like it!” Arthur protested, sounding almost offended, which was totally hilarious. Only Artie would think there was something wrong in simply admitting that yeah, he liked the ocean. No one but Arthur himself felt that he needed to be solemnity and work all the time. He was too serious. It was almost cute. “I've never even saw it! How would I like something I don’t even know???”

…WAIT. WHAT.

**_WHAT._ **

“You've never been to the sea?!” Alfred asked shocked. His chin dropped so hard, it felt like it was trying to reach the ground. “ _Never_? Not even when you were a kid???”

“We spent our childhood together! When did you hear me saying that I went to the beach?” Arthur answered sourly, seeming almost offended that Alfred didn’t know that detail about his life. “What is the problem? I saw the sea in... books and... pictures! It's pretty much the same thing!”

No, no. Arthur was wrong! That wasn’t enough! The Kingdom of Spades was a NAVAL power. They were SURROUNDED by ocean. Beaches were the most famous parts of the Kingdom of Spades and the Queen himself had never visited it?? That was like... like…! What example would Arthur understand? Uh… Like, going to the largest library in the world and not reading a single book! Absurd!

Their castle was right in the center of the kingdom, relatively far from the beaches in order to prevent invaders coming from the sea to reach the castle so yeah, Alfred could see how Arthur, who refused to leave the castle unless there was an emergency somewhere else, never got a glimpse of it but still! Enough was enough!

"Arthur, things can’t go on like this anymore. We have to sort this out.” Alfred said seriously, grabbing his Queen’s shoulders very tightly. "You’re the Queen of Spades. You have to see the ocean.”

In response to it, Arthur looked away, slightly embarrassed and with a slightly annoyed pout, looking so freaking adorable that Alfred could only think of how much he wanted to kiss him.

“I… I can’t do that. That… has nothing to do with work.” Artie mumbled, hesitant, while putting the book he was reading before on the table “I could be solving so many issues for the Kingdom in the time I would waste going to the beach.”

Oh, so Arthur _wanted_ to go. He just felt that he _shouldn’t_ go.

"Arthur, you're going to die if you don’t leave this place at least once in awhile. Look at this office. It turned into a freaking cauldron. The heat is unbearable here! I find it incredible that you have not melted by now. What is the point of staying locked here? You can’t even concentrate and do your job properly in these conditions.” hearing Arthur answering his arguments with only a skeptical ‘hmph’, Alfred reinforced his case with a fact. "Remember early this week, when you accidentally sent armed soldiers to a Countess's baby shower and servants with presents to a bar being investigated for accepting criminals as customers?”

Arthur's cheeks changed color, indicating that yes, he remembered this incident very well. Especially since Alfred had laughed about it for a couple of days right in his face.

"You need to get out of here, Artie.” Alfred concluded confident in the truth of his words. “And I dare say that you need a good bath in the ocean too.”

Arthur pondered about it in silent for a bit, casually fixing his little hat on the top of his head, probably to seem distracted and avoid looking pensive, as he certainly was, about what Alfred said.

Then, after thinking for awhile, he finally answered Alfred in the worst way possible.

“It was just a mistake!” he ended up saying, looking away “That doesn’t mean I should give up working! I can handle this. A little bit of heat is nothing!”

That guy could be so frustrating.

Alfred sighed deeply, containing his irritation. He would have to be insistent, it seemed.

"I'm asking this as your husband and as the King of Spades: please come to the beach with me.” he said so seriously it was almost intense.

Arthur, then, lowered his eyes for a moment, tapping his fingers on his lap and biting his lip before saying in a hesitant, restrained voice:

"Alfred, you know how busy I am…"

Tsk, as expected, there was no way to convince Arthur to do something without resorting to the professional benefit of it.

“If you go to the beach and see the ocean, this can help you to better understand the experiences of various people of our kingdom who depend on it and appreciate it.” Alfred Frederick Jones argued with his rhetorical skills of years urging outsiders to reduce import prices. “Plus, if you take a break, you'll feel better and make fewer mistakes in your work.”

Boom! Done! Arguments that made sense, weren’t personal and were work related! Alfred couldn’t do better than that to convince Arthur. If he still had some resistance, then it was pretty much the end of the story.

"Alfred, I can’t…"

Urgh.

It wasn’t going to work. Arthur never accepted any of Alfred’s invitations to go out with him. What would have made it different now? Alfred should have known that…

"I can’t... stay out too long. It would have to be for one afternoon, at most.”

!!!!!

Wait, what???

WAS THAT A YES????

“What about the travel time??” Alfred asked, checking to see if Arthur's answer was really positive or more of a negative answered disguised behind hard-to-fulfill conditions than anything. "When you say one afternoon, does that include the time to take you there and bring you back? Because we would have to stay very little there if we left in the afternoon to return in the afternoon.”

"We would leave the castle in the morning and stay in the beach during the afternoon, returning home at dusk. It’s the most that I can offer of my time.

WOW.

HE WAS SERIOUS.

"No, no, that's fine! That’s totally fine!” Alfred answered, quickly nodding in agreement. "No problem! Do you have other requests?”

"While I’m there, don’t force me to do anything I don’t want to.” Arthur added, and before Alfred agreed with him again, he held up his hand, interrupting him. “I'm not done. I don’t want anyone around the place we’re going. We have to go to a private beach.”

“Er… Okay? Why though?”

Arthur bit his lower lip and frowned, clearly hesitating for a moment before admitting:

"I… I wasn’t prepared for meeting people in this kind of context. I wouldn’t know how to deal with them if I saw someone there.”

The idea of the all-serious-powerful-and-pompous Arthur getting all disoriented at the mere idea of bumping into a stranger on the beach was almost comical. Alfred had to cover his mouth to disguise his laugh.

“Pfff. Seriously, Arthur???” yet, he probably didn’t disguise his amusement very well.

“Alfred, I’m being extremely serious!” Arthur answered with his face burning “If you don’t take us to a private beach, I won’t go to the beach at all!”

Oh well. Alfred smiled, shrugging with a resigned sigh. He didn’t need to understand Arthur's request. That condition seemed like a low price to pay in exchange of getting Arthur out of that castle for an entire afternoon.

“Okay, okay. Better for me!” Alfred winked, making finger guns at Arthur. "This way, no one is gonna see my sexy Queen almost naked!" he said it making it sound like he was just teasing Arthur and not just saying the truth.

“I have no intention of being almost naked, in one way or another.” Arthur grumbled, making a face. “Alfred, be honest. I'll regret letting you take me somewhere out of our castle, won’t I?” he asked with a tired sigh.

“Not at all! I promise you'll have an incredible day, you bitter old man!” Alfred promised, bending over to give a quick peak to Arthur's cheek and then running to the door before he could give Arthur a chance to notice that he got embarrassed by his own actions. “I'll take care of preparations for the trip now! See ya soon!”

When Alfred was running down the corridor to give the great news to the ministers that Arthur would finally take a day off, he heard the Queen's voice echoing impatiently through the castle's walls saying "I AM JUST A YEAR OLDER THAN YOU!!!". Pffff, amazing.

* * *

 

 

Arthur had asked for a deserted beach. The problem is that there were no private beaches in Spades.

In order to attend his request, Alfred had to find the farthest and quietest beach in the kingdom and pay compensation to the locals so they would stay elsewhere during the scheduled day. He also had to give a general warning to the kingdom that the beach would be visited by the King and the Queen and would be out of limits for other people and ask his soldiers to put signs around the area so no one could enter it by accident.

It was extremely tiring to have to deal with so many people to organize something so simple.

In the last couple of days, he had to make a number of negotiations with the locals and the ministers to calm the fears of the population that this beach would become permanently private, to calm the revolt of those who were saying that this was yet another demonstration of the monarchical authoritarianism... Anyway, it was a huge mess. All that just so that an small area within a secluded beach was reserved exclusively for them for a few hours. Come on.

It was incredible to think that Arthur was able to carry out so many measures for the kingdom when he had to constantly explain himself to the population, to the ministers and to every member of his staff. His work was so exhausting!

At least, now, the problem of finding a space was finally settled. The only problem left was that Arthur kept changing his mind about their deal.

_Alfred, I don’t know if I should really go. What if some emergency happens and they need me?_

_Alfred, I've been thinking and I'm not so interested in seeing the sea. I don’t think it's worth it to get out of here just to see it._

_What if I get sick, Alfred? And if going to the beach expose me to some mysterious marine disease and I die? How will the kingdom deal with this?_

At first, Alfred was patient and gave logical counterarguments to each of Arthur's fears. He continued to persuade Arthur to go with him, soothing his completely irrational fears and talking about the benefits this trip would have. After a certain point, however, he grew tired of hitting the sames issues over and over.

One day, when Arthur once again wanted to cancel their beach day, he replied impatiently:

"Urgh, Arthur! It's so rare for me to be here during this time of the year! You know I'm going to travel later and spend three months away and who know when our schedules will meet again in midsummer! I want to go out with you! Can’t you take a single day out of your life to do one thing with me that I'm organizing the best as I can?!”

Arthur stopped making excuses to not go after that.

From Alfred's perspective, the preparations he had to make to get Arthur to the beach were more intense and tiring than any event in that castle, but believe it or not, though that period seemed an eternity in the eyes of all involved, this took about a week and a half.

After this brief and intense period, the day finally arrived that Arthur and Alfred had arranged for their trip, and Alfred could not be more pleased with the success of his plans.

Arthur, of course, got as busy as he could until the very last minute, talking to a bunch of ministers and giving instructions for what they should do in a bunch of hypothetical scenarios with the (very remote) possibility of any of them happening while he wasn’t there.

Alfred had to pull him by the arm to drag him to the carriage because he kept talking to everyone he saw on the way, leaving instructions to them.

"Remember to see if the palace animals were fed, and also ...!"

"Arthur, this isn’t even part of your job!"

Despite all this drama, Arthur couldn’t get away and he ended up in the carriage just in time, sitting next to Alfred. He brought a unnecessarily bulky luggage with him. For someone who said they would only spent a few hours out, he had prepared himself as if they were about to spend a month away from the palace.

Maybe one day. Alfred could always hope.

 

* * *

 

 

Alfred and Arthur were in complete silence as the carriage moved away from the palace gates.

The reason for Alfred's silence was because, even as the gates were closing behind him, he was still a little skeptical about the fact that his plan had worked. He could hardly believe that he was now taking Arthur with him to see the ocean for the first time.

As for Arthur's silence... Well... He was probably just evaluating a thousand and one ways the castle could be destroyed while he was gone.

It took some time for both of them to overcome the intimidating fact that this was one of the rare times Arthur had left the palace. Alfred felt that he could ruin everything if he said a single word wrong. He REALLY didn’t want to risk asking questions to Arthur, out of his fear that the answer would end with ‘and I want to go home now.’. So eventually it was Arthur who made the first comment, breaking the uneasy silence between them.

"The last time I left the castle was in the day of our marriage…" Arthur remembered with the beginning of a smile on his face. “I'm still pretty sure you wanted it to be in the town square instead of the traditional choice for the castle’s chapel just to annoy me.”

Actually, the reason for that choice was because Alfred wanted to approach popular cultural events and nobility events more often as a way of bringing the monarchy closer to the masses, enabling a more effective communication between them.

He _could_ explain it to Arthur but nah. It was more fun to let him believe otherwise. The real story was boriiing.

"You know, you should go to more events in the other kingdoms.” Alfred commented, intentionally straying from answering Arthur's previous question. "Everyone always asks about you.”

"I don’t have to go so I won’t. It's my motto.”

"This is so unfair. People visit you all the time.” Alfred pointed out with a scolding scowl.

"No one is forcing them to do it."

Alfred sighed, touching his forehead with his fingertips.

"You're so complicated." He muttered disapprovingly, shaking his head to the sides.

“Look who's talking. You never properly host our guests in the palace. You always say you're ‘not working now’ and lock yourself up in the library or in the stables to avoid them. You are also annoying in certain contexts.”

Wow, snap!

“Hey! This is not the same thing! I mean, it’s almost the same thing but not the same thing!”

" _This is not the same thing. It’s almost the same thing but not the same thing!_ ” Arthur imitated him mockingly. “What a convincing and solid argument. I was shamefully defeated.” Arthur smirked in the most snobbish way possible.

“Stop it, you silly.” Alfred pulled one of his cheeks very lightly, which made Arthur wince and pull his hand away, letting out a small, unsatisfied grunt.

Arthur always got a bit grumpy at Alfred sudden contacts. Because according to him, ‘I need to mentally prepare myself before you touch me!’. Alfred still didn’t know whether that was a compliment or an insult, so he continued to do that as a punishment when Arthur was being a little annoying.

"While we’re in the beach, you will remember what we agreed, right?" Arthur asked, blushing slightly, touching his cheek gently where Alfred had pulled, as if it was hurt. "About you not forcing me to do anything?"

"I won’t force you to do anything! I swear!”

“Okay… ” Arthur clasped his hands, looking away for a moment.

They had another moment of silence. This time, Arthur was a little timid and clumsy when he tried to break it.

"What... What should we talk about now? I don’t know how to deal with… Well… ” He gestured with his arms, encompassing everything inside the carriage and bringing it to himself. Alfred had no idea what he meant by that gesture. “I don’t know how to deal with this…”

This what? Did he mean the carriage? The trip? The mere idea of going to the beach?

One way or another, Arthur seemed genuinely to be asking for help, so Alfred didn’t want to ask any unnecessary questions or bother him about it. If he wanted help to talk, Alfred was more than happy to provide it. He could be a gentleman on occasion.

"What other places would you like to visit besides the sea?" he asked curiously.

Arthur, then, looked up at Alfred and there was a beautiful glow in his eyes. Even without smiling, he looked so happy to hear that question. It was freaking adorable.

"I don’t want to visit other places." Arthur replied, and his previously happy face became sort of melancholic. "That would be too much work for nothing.”

Technically, that didn’t answer Alfred’s question. Arthur didn’t say where he would like to go! He only said why he was not going to these places! That wasn’t good enough!

Alfred decided to press a bit more on it.

“Okay, let's pretend time has been frozen and we can fly to wherever we want. What place would you like to visit?”

Arthur put his hand under his chin, looking up at the ceiling and thinking hard about it before answering:

“Perhaps… a waterfall.”

Oh.

That was surprising. An old library or some important historical statue were answers Alfred expected from his husband but a waterfall? Out of all the things and places in the world, why did he want to see a waterfall? First the ocean, then a waterfall? Was Arthur a big water fan or something?

“ _Any_ waterfall?” Alfred checked.

Arthur nodded with his eyes focused on the ground. Now, that was even more weird and confusing for Alfred. He didn’t even want a specific waterfall. He just wanted to go to a waterfall. Why?

"Why?"

“I read a lot about waterfalls.” he admitted. Curiously, despite the fact that seemed somewhat guarded and reluctant to say it, he also sounded a bit excited about the subject. "They look very romantic." he added and though his eyes remained down, they acquired a certain softness and tenderness.

Romantic, eh? Given the fact that Alfred had asked where Arthur would like to go _with him_ , would that mean that…?

Oh, man. Alfred got pretty agitated inside.

The problem is that an agitated Alfred almost never could contain his urge to say something stupid.

"A waterfall is just what the name says. Water falling.” he replied instantly, before he could contain himself, wanting to hit his own face for that.

"Well, the sea is only salty water moving, and yet look at your utterly irritatingly insistent in taking me to see it.” Arthur replied slightly annoyed.

Alfred couldn’t help but laugh at that.

“You’re pretty sharp today, Arthur!”

"What can I say?" Arthur shrugged, smiling. "It must be my bitter energy stored up, since I couldn’t vent it on our ministers today.”

"Wait. So you just store your bitterness if you don’t get to use it?"

Arthur's rather interesting response to this was to cross and uncross his legs, lean his face to the side, bend his arm over his chest, supporting the side of his face in one hand, and then say with a large smile:

“Alfred, I’m the Queen. When I say that we should always try to take a hold on our treasures, I really mean it. My bitterness is one of them.”.

"Heh. You kept shifting positions all this time just to have time to think about that answer." Alfred pointed out, feeling rather cocky about how much he knew his queen.

He was sure he got Arthur in this one because he couldn’t help but smile, hitting his shoulder lightly.

“Shh. Be quiet now. I want to see the view.” Arthur said, despite the fact he wasn’t even looking at the window until then.

Ahh, that would be a lovely trip.

 

* * *

 

 

For the next twenty minutes, Alfred and Arthur talked about their interests and about life in the castle as the carriage advanced on the Kingdom’s main roads’ stones. Most of the conversation consisted of Alfred asking questions that Arthur, surprisingly, was glad to answer, with Alfred also taking the initiative to make occasional comments about his own experiences.

Looking out the window, Arthur recognized the scenarios around him and commented on his memories of those places. However, when the surroundings began to become strange to him, Arthur asked Alfred to close the curtains on the windows because ‘if he would see the sea, he wanted to see the sea at once,’ he argued.

When the carriage stopped on uneven ground, after a long time of it shaking more than usual, Alfred knew that it was over sand now and that the reason they stopped was because they had reached their destination. Tired as he was to stay so long in an enclosed place, as soon as the coachman confirmed they were in the beach, he immediately started to open the door, ready to go for a run in the sand. However, his movement was stopped by Arthur, who held his arm firmly, holding him in place.

Alfred's first thought was ‘ _I swear, if he says he’s changed his mind and wants to go back…._ ’

He turned to Arthur so freaking ready to fight him.

However, when his eyes met Arthur's, he realized how much fear and anxiety the Queen's eyes were emanating and that dismantled his aggressive posture immediately. It made him understand that he had to take it easy. After all, Arthur rarely left the castle. This was a rare and important experience for him. It was normal that he needed some time to get comfortable with the idea.

So he waited for Arthur to calm down and loosen the pressure on his arm on his own.

“Are you ready?” he asked when it finally happened.

“Hang on!” Arthur took a deep breath, closing his eyes for a moment. “Yes… I am.”

Alfred finally opened the carriage door and stepped out of it, feeling the beach’s cool, salty breeze from immediately hitting his face and ruffling his hair as he did it.

In front of him there was white, clean sand, almost soft in appearance, adorned only with small shells here and there. The ocean, clear and blue, slithered through the sand, dying it from white to a faint shade of brown. Its white foam dissipated slowly, then quickly reappeared as the waves hit the sand. No matter how familiar that picture might look to a traveler like Alfred, he could not help but still admire it. Although he was used to seeing that kind of landscape, nature was so great and incredible that it always seemed unique in each of its presentations.

Alfred, then, turned to Arthur to see if he felt the same way about the beautiful, big and inviting ocean in front of them.

Apparently not.

Arthur's expression didn’t looked amazed AT ALL. One could say he looked “surprised” but "shocked" would be the most accurate word to describe his current state. Wide eyes, eyebrows almost fusing in the center of his forehead, mouth half open with trembling lips… Oh, dear.

Wasn’t that view supposed to be beautiful or exciting to him? Why was he making the face of someone who had just discovered that a strange stain on the wall was actually a huge insect?

"What do you think of the sea, Artie?" Alfred asked with an encouraging smile, putting his hand on his queen’s shoulder.

“It’s big.”

This was, apparently, the only thing Arthur had to say about the matter.

Uh-oh.

"It’s big but beautiful, don’t you think?" Alfred tilted his head to the side.

“It’s _big._ ” he repeated in a slightly firmer tone, turning to Alfred with a pretty much accusatory look.

Welp. That was not a good sign.

Shortly after seeing the sea for the first time, Arthur turned his back to it, grabbed his luggage and took out an umbrella and what seemed to be dozens of towels that were inside of it. He then mounted camp away from the sea, refusing to move from there. Oh, dear.

“You won’t even enjoy the best part of going to the beach!” Alfred complained from a distance.

In response, Arthur, very well covered in his uniform and protected by loads of towels, looking more like the ghost of a wreck victim than someone having fun at the beach, made an expression that suggested that Alfred was the odd one for wanting to go the water while they were at the beach.

How in the world was that guy not dying of overheat, by the way? He had to be half-dragon.

"Well, even if you don’t swim, I will." Alfred commented, taking off his coat and his shoes and throwing them aside.

It was very subtle but Alfred could see Arthur's eyes widen a little and then gaze hard on his body as he began undressing.

"Forgive me if I'm not a nudist eager for death like you”. Arthur said immediately as their eyes met, clearing his throat.

"A nudist eager for death, huh? I like the sound of it. Please describe me like that in my epitaph.” Alfred laughed, lowering his pants. He thought about throwing them at Arthur just to be playful but he didn’t want to test Artie's patience in a clearly delicate situation.

"Anyway… We should stay here. It wouldn’t be good for anyone if we got a sunburn.” Arthur argued, moving slightly to the side and giving Alfred space to sit right beside him.

This was a nice opportunity but Alfred was a man of priorities.

"Nah, no way, I'm going to the water and you should follow me too. You will end up bored, sitting under that umbrella all day long!” Alfred answered, unbuttoning his shirt and letting it slide down his shoulders. He turned to the ocean, leaving his back exposed to Arthur.

Curiously, even with his back turned to Arthur, Alfred could feel Arthur staring at him with an almost embarrassing intensity. Alfred tried to look back at him over his shoulder, just to send out a silent "dude, what?" question to him, yet Arthur was so focused on looking at whatever was on his back that he didn’t even notice Alfred was staring back at him.

When he finally realized he was being watched back, Arthur began to cough nervously, covering his face with his arm.

"I've never seen your tattoo." he commented, looking away.

Huh.

He could only be referring to the royal mark, the Spades symbol engraved in the body of its regent after they ascended the throne. Both Alfred and Arthur had one in different parts of the body, hidden by the various layers of clothing they had to wear inside the palace.

“Oh yeah. I thought it would be good to put it in my back. It's a place in my body I don’t see unless I really want to.”

"You say it as if the royal mark is a bad thing." Arthur answered reprehensively, fanning himself with the little top hat he always wore. The heat must have begun to hit him harder now, for some reason. He looked a bit red too. “Having the mark is a great honor.”

“… and a constant reminder that we didn’t choose the path to our lives”. Alfred retorted.

Arthur’s shoulders shrank and the corners of his mouth lowered.

"I have nothing against the path our lives have taken. Would you rather have a different fate?” he murmured with a worried expression, taking one of his towels from the sand to wipe the sweat on his neck.

Oh, Arthur seemed a little upset. That wasn’t good.

He didn’t understand.

Although Alfred had some problems with his position as a King, he would never change a life that had led him to Arthur. He wanted Arthur to understand that very well.

“Duh, of course I would prefer things to be different. I would rather have married you on my own merit than only have achieved it because of stupid policies.” Alfred said with a playful smile and a completely sincere voice.

Hearing this, Arthur’s lips parted and his eyes widened for a moment, emitting a rare, vulnerable glow. For a moment, it seemed that he was about to say something important. However, at the last second something made him swallow his words, so instead, he just laughed it off.

“You idiot. You and your stupid jokes.” he said in a quite found voice.

Seeing that smile, more radiant than the sun reflected on the sand, Alfred could feel the blood rising to his face and burning in every pore of his skin. He felt a little silly reacting so much to a simple smile, so improvising a scrambled response that ended up being something like "the one who calls the others idiot is the true idiot, hahaha," he ran to the water and took a big dip in the first wave he saw. Maybe the cold water would cool his face a little.

Since he had entered the sea, Alfred decided to spend some time playing alone in the water. Although it wasn’t his original plan to spend the afternoon having fun in the water while Arthur watched him from a considerable distance, he had promised Arthur he wouldn’t force him into anything so there was nothing else he could do. Besides, who knows. Maybe seeing him have so much fun would make Arthur a bit more adventurous too.

His patience paid off indeed, and Arthur’s stubborn nature started to break over time.

The heat was the first thing that got to him. There was a point where Arthur could no longer stand it. He got up and took off his coat, his hat and his trousers, only wearing his underwear and a shirt that was long enough to hide a good portion of his legs.

Alfred, who had stopped swimming and stood up as he noticed the movement in Arthur's little shelter, probably stared at that sudden striptease a little more than he intended, given that after some time Arthur blushed and shouted at him.

"The sand is getting into my clothes! T-These fabrics are expensive! I have to take them off!” he said, pulling his shorts down, hiding his legs with it the best he could.

The fact that Arthur felt the need to explain why he was taking off his clothes in the BEACH said so much about the weird details in their relationship.

“Yeah, I know! I was just... I was just looking for your tattoo!” Alfred answered, utterly relieved for having thought of a decent excuse in time.

Hearing this, Arthur arched an eyebrow, intrigued, before grinning victoriously for some reason.

"Well, you won’t see it like that. It’s under my shirt.”

"Oh, did you put it on your back too?"

"No, I left it in a more interesting place.” his smile was softly, discreetly teasing him.

"And you won’t let me see it?"

“No.”

Arthur was clearly provoking him.

That freaking tease. Alfred tried to throw water at him but he was too far away to get hit by even a few drops. That only made Alfred more determined to make he take off that damn shirt. Instead of giving up, Alfred stepped out of the water and moved towards Arthur, pulling him over before he could even react to it and hugging him tightly.

“What are you doing?!” Arthur asked, his voice coming out a little too high from the shock. "You're getting me all wet!"

“That's the intention!”

One of them, at least. Hugging Arthur was a rewarding action in itself.

Arthur continued struggling in his arms and complaining that he was cold, sticky and smelling of salt. Still, at no time did he ask Alfred to stop, which was somewhat curious, considering that under their agreement as soon as he asked Alfred to stop, he would have to do so. Why didn’t he just do that?

It was Alfred who took the initiative to release him after leaving Arthur completely red and wet and with his hair all messy.

"Well, now that you're wet anyway, why don’t you take off your shirt and get into the water?" he suggested, very pleased with the results of his actions.

Arthur was two seconds away from telling Alfred to go fuck himself. Alfred could read it in his expression. However, for reasons unknown to Alfred, he simply took a deep breath and took off his shirt without major protests.

It was there that Alfred saw the Spades symbol engraved on one side of his body, emphasizing the curve of his hips.

Damn.

“I feel completely naked. I hate this.” Arthur admitted awkwardly, putting his arms around his chest. Alfred wouldn’t dare say that to him, but trying to cover himself up only made the situation look a lot more sensual than it actually was.

Almost automatically and completely out of his control, the answer that came out of Alfred's mouth was:

“I _wish_.”

Lucky, Arthur took this spontaneous sincere comment as some kind of joke and laughed. He even got a bit humorous after that. Yep, that was totally a joke. Nothing else. Haha.

"Don’t you want to sit on the towel with me now? You must be sick of floating in salty water.”

"Nah, I still want to be in the water but I’m a bit tired indeed, so I'll just stay on the edge. If you want, you can come closer to me. We can make a sandcastle or something.”

"A sand castle?"

"You never made one?" Alfred arched an eyebrow, surprised for a moment before remembering. Oh, right. His queen only left the castle like, two, maybe three times in all his life. “Oh, we have to fix it. Let me show you how to build an awesome castle right now, Artie.”

The heat made Arthur take off his clothes and the prospect of making a castle made Arthur dare to come a little closer to the ocean, which was kind of funny and fitting for him, since he loved his actual castle so much.

Alfred stood at the edge of the water, showing him how to build a castle as Arthur leaned closer to look at him from his beach fortress. It was only when Arthur noticed that the dry sand from the area he was in was not good enough to make a solid construction if compared to the wet sand Alfred was using that Arthur rose from his distant shelter and advanced a few steps towards the ocean.

At first, the water foam approaching Artie's feet made him jump back and stare suspiciously at the ocean, not daring to go beyond that distance. Despite this, he kept close to the water and, over time, he visibly got more comfortable with it and a little amused by the difference in texture of the sand when it was wet. He had fun with the way his footprints sank a lot more as got nearer to the water.

Yet, he still didn’t want to go into the water. He didn’t even want to get too close to it.

When he needed a little more water to apply to some part of his castle, he asked Alfred to carry it in his hands, which Alfred did. Even though it was a little inconvenient and not very efficient because a lot of water escaped between his fingers, he did it because, hey, Arthur was _playing on the beach_. That was a huge progress!

Then, on one of these trips, a bit of sand came along with the water and in it there was a small white shell with orange spots.

“What is it???” Arthur got up suddenly at seeing it and excitedly took the shell out of Alfred's hands and examined it with care and fascination.

“It's a shell.” Alfred said with a shrug. "You never seen one?"

“No!” Arthur replied, his face practically shining, full of energy as he lifted the shell above his eyes to watch it through the sun. “Are they all like this? The pattern on it is so beautiful.”

“Not necessarily. They are often different from each other.” Alfred answered casually.

Alfred has never been so enthusiastic about a shell pattern. Shells were shells. They were not large and you could find several of them in any beach. To Arthur, however, they clearly were the find of the century.

"Can you get more of these for me?" Arthur asked, his eyes bright and dreamy.

That didn’t sound like a good deal, to be honest. Why do all that work of going out looking for shells for Arthur when Arthur could go do it himself? Alfred made a brief sour face that conveyed a feeling of "ehh, I don’t know," which Arthur probably didn’t even notice.

Still excited, he took Alfred's hands and said with a smile as bright and warm as the sun itself above their heads:

“I want to decorate my entire castle with them!”

That was the most enthusiastic smile Alfred had seen on Arthur's face in years. From Arthur's level of enthusiasm it was not even possible to know if he was talking about decorating his sandcastle or his actual castle.

Anyway, damn, Alfred was really weak against that ridiculously adorable side of Arthur's personality.

Obviously, he agreed to get the freaking shells. As if he would deny anything to Arthur while they held hands and Artie smiled at him.

The best thing was that, in the end, Alfred didn’t have to gather a bunch of shells alone because when he was still collecting the first, Arthur ran up to his side, asking what he had picked up and pointing other shells in the sand. That became more of a duo activity than a task, which was a very nice change for Alfred. He usually didn’t have a chance to do casual activities together with Arthur in a relaxed way and doing that now was being incredibly fun.

At this point, Arthur was so close to the sea that it was inevitable that the foam and some water would hit him. He let out a high-pitched exclamation the first time it happened, which made Alfred discreetly laugh at him. Fortunately, Arthur quickly recovered from this incident, hit Alfred lightly on the shoulder, and continued his search for different colored shells to decorate his sandcastle, without commenting on the fact that the water was now constantly hitting his feet. Alfred smiled at his back, somewhat proud of him.

Arthur even kicked some water at Alfred at some point, playing around with him. Alfred, in turn, kicked wet sand at his legs and, somehow, over time, things evolved into a war of water and wet sand. They ran one after the other, alternating attacks and taunts and laughing together.

They were so distracted by it that they didn’t notice that they were advancing ever further into the water. It came as a complete surprise to Alfred when a wave about the height of his waist struck both of them, pushing them hard and causing Arthur to fall awkwardly in the water.

OH NO. FUCK. FUCK.

Arthur would get so mad! He would yell at Alfred! He would curse Alfred, curse the beach, curse the sea, curse the carriage that brought them there...! Shit, he would probably want to go back home!! He would, he would…!

"Oh, well, that was pretty disastrous. The ocean clearly won this battle, Alfred. To be fair, it has much more sand and water than we will ever have.” Arthur stated, pulling his wet hair out of his eyes as he stood up.

He would... take everything surprisingly well, apparently.

Arthur was now in the middle of the water, completely wet and covered with sand and the end of times didn’t happen? Alfred was confused now. Seriously confused.

"Are... Are you okay?" he checked hesitantly.

Arthur shrugged casually.

"My eyes burn and I'm covered in sand but I won’t die because of it.”

That calm demeanor, coming from Arthur, seemed like a bad sign. It was so common for Arthur to yell when he got bothered by little things but his true anger was silent and cold as ice. And boy, he had to be pretty angry to be acting that nonchalant to a incident he wanted to avoid all day.

The idea that Arthur was really upset made Alfred rethink all his behavior that afternoon. Alfred couldn’t help feeling a little guilty about their current situation. He should have been more aware and realized that they were getting too far into the water. Arthur trusted him and Alfred wasn’t careful enough.

Arthur was afraid of he ocean and explicitly asked him to stay out of it. Couldn’t Alfred be a little less insistent about them getting closer to it and a bit more attentive to Arthur’s fears? Maybe his queen was right to be upset. Alfred was feeling a bit manipulative now, given that in a way, he had drawn Arthur slowly to a situation he had wanted to avoid so badly.

"Look, Arthur, I'm sorry.” he said seriously. His chest was a little heavy. He was actually concerned that he spoiled his chances with Arthur by screwing up on the one time he decided to trust on him. "I didn’t realize we had gotten too far into the water. I think the tide raised up or something... If you want, we can get out of here and...”

“Why are you apologizing? As if I would depend so much on you. I wasn’t expecting you to take care of me. I should have noticed such a detail but I was rather... distracted.”

Wait. Arthur really wasn’t angry?

"You’re not upset?" Alfred asked, almost incredulous.

"I didn’t ..." he was saying when a bit of sand fell from his hair on his mouth, causing him to stick out his tongue to get rid of it. “Wait, let me dive for a bit. I gotta get this sand out of my hair. I'm such a mess.”

Arthur was staying in the sea. Alfred wasn’t holding him there or blackmailing him with something and yet, he was still there. By his own choice. Arthur had simply overcome his fear and, by his own choice, he was staying there.

This sudden realization blew Alfred’s mind. Arthur actually WANTED to be there.

It was incredible to think that Arthur not only had opened up to try something suggested by Alfred, coming out of his extremely restricted comfort zone and allowing himself to do something he would not usually do, but also that he was now having fun with it.

That must have demanded a lot of courage and a lot of trust in Alfred, whose chest warmed as he thought about how much that meant to him. Alfred suddenly felt a huge wave of affection for his queen, an intense urge to embrace him that had to be satisfied as soon as possible.

He did it as soon as Arthur got on his feet again.

Arthur, in response, gasped and put his hands on Alfred's chest, pushing him lightly, not enough to pull him away.

“I'm already soaked and in the water! What else do you want? Why are you hugging me?” Arthur asked, as if the only possible reason for Alfred to embrace him was blackmail.

“Because I want to.” he replied instantly. The seriousness of his reply seemed to catch Arthur by surprise.

"Oh."

Hearing that, Arthur sighed deeply and relaxed suddenly in his arms.

“Any complaints about it?” Alfred checked. After all, their ‘I won’t make you do anything you don’t want to do’ promise was still valid.

Arthur sighed against his shoulder. His warm breath against Alfred's cold skin made him shiver.

"No." he answered.

With that settled, they held each other until a wave hit them and knocked them back down in the sand. And then they just got up and continued to have fun in the sea together.

 

* * *

 

 

Only when the water began to cool and Arthur began to sneeze they decided it was time to get out of there and go back home.

They left the ocean, technically holding hands though that was mostly so Alfred could drag Arthur with him since he wouldn’t stop complaining about being too tired and feeling his body weight too much to move.

“That’s what happens when a really sedentary man does a bit of exercise”, Alfred pointed out, and he was so on point with that one that not even Arthur could argue with him, letting out a grumpy sound in response.

Out of the water, they went back to the shelter Arthur had set up to gather their belongings and prepare to leave.

And as they did it, Alfred took advantage of Arthur's distraction to comment briefly and embarrassedly that he had enjoyed their afternoon very much and that he had had a good time.

“I…. I'm glad you thought so.” Arthur said, a little awkward as well. "I was worried you would find me to be a boring company. You never seem to have fun with me when we're at the castle. You always complain that I only talk about work and…”

“Well, you’re wrong.” Alfred interrupted him firmly. "I always have fun when I’m around you. Always. I thought YOU were the one who never had fun with me and who thought I’m always just an annoying guy, always knocking on your door and bothering you. I didn’t bring you here to, I don’t know, find out you had a fun side or whatever. I already have fun with you all the time. I brought you here because I wanted YOU to have some fun with ME!”

Arthur looked away at that, his cheeks slightly pink. Without an immediate answer, he was silent for a while and sat briefly on his towel, hugging his knees, partially hiding his face.

"You know ..." he began in a voice filled with emotion that Alfred couldn’t identify. "One thing you don’t understand about me..." almost choked by his throat, Arthur's voice became a little squeaky and filled with air “... is that I feel about you the same way you feel about me.”

He probably had no idea the effect these words had on Alfred.

The wind blew on the beach and the waves hit the sand. Those soft sounds were the only noises around while Alfred thought about how to respond to that. Arthur's phrase could have many meanings. Some of them could permanently change their relationship. If Alfred asked what Arthur meant by that, what kind of answer would he get? Was he ready for it? After an afternoon full of progress for their relationship, he didn’t want to risk losing a single drop of what they had at the moment. Therefore, Alfred chose the safest translation for Arthur's words. It was better this way.

"You mean, you want me to have fun with you too?" he asked, rubbing the back of his neck with a puzzled smile.

Arthur snorted and rolled his eyes, looking immensely frustrated for some reason.

“Let's go home. We both need an urgent shower. I feel bad for our poor carriage.” he stood up, patting his tights to get the sand out of them. "What can I wear to not ruin it? My shirt is completely wet.” Arthur grabbed his shirt from the towel, spread it and began to shake it in front of Alfred to prove his point. "See?? Look how wet it is! Besides soaking our seats, I’m afraid to wear it because I don’t want to get sick! I would have to miss work for two days!”

Yeah, because that was the _worst_ possible thing about Arthur getting sick. Honestly, that dude... Urgh. He was lucky to have Alfred to help him take better care of himself.

“No problem. I'll lend you my coat.” Alfred suggested. "It's dry and bigger than yours. You can cover up completely."

Blinking twice, slightly surprised, Arthur reached out to get Alfred's coat with such anticipation that he seemed to have never touched a coat before in his life.

“Oh. Thank you. I appreciate that.”

Arthur looked very cute wearing only Alfred’s coat. It was crazy how cute he looked. The beach seemed very dull right now because Arthur on his coat was the best vision Alfred could hope for.

 

* * *

 

 

Arthur was completely red when they got at the carriage. He most likely got a sunburn, Alfred thought at first, but that blush faded as they approached home. Maybe it was just the heat.

The return trip was a relatively quiet one, since both of them were absorbed in thoughts about everything that had happened.

It had been a long day. Alfred had many questions for Arthur. He was curious about a lot of things that happened during that afternoon and, frankly, they had to talk more about it later. However, for the time being, he contained most of his questions and made only the two more important ones because he didn’t want Arthur to get sulky for being tired with the other questions and not answer him seriously on those two.

"Did you like to come here?" he asked his queen. "Do you want to come again sometime?"

“Yes, to both of these questions... It was interesting. We can go back someday. Preferably, with more clothes.” Arthur replied, making Alfred laugh briefly at his last statement, before they went back to stare silently out their windows.

Still, Alfred kept stealing glimpses of the person he liked by his reflection in the window.

He thought he was being discreet. He wasn’t.

As Arthur ignored Alfred OBVIOUSLY staring at his face during their trip back home, he thought about the undeniable fact that they had to go out together more often that summer.

Perhaps in professional terms, going out with Alfred seemed like a waste of time, but honestly, Arthur was gradually wasting more and more time not being able to concentrate on his tasks because of his secret and long held crush for that fool. It was getting worse. He had even made that stupid mistake of sending soldiers and servants to the wrong places because he was distracted at the time thinking about how attractive Alfred was, walking around, taking off his clothes in the middle of his office and grunting because of the summer heat.

Arthur would have to confess his feelings eventually. The situation was getting ridiculous. Alfred liked him! He liked Alfred back! How many years had they been in that eternal wait for the other to confess first? Clearly Arthur would have to take an initiative if Alfred kept playing dumb about the matter to stay in a comfort zone.

Well, anyway, a beach really seemed like a good idea. Arthur was more prone to cold than to heat but he always felt his body getting hotter when he was near Alfred anyway. If he would be with Alfred an entire day, he really needed it to be in a place where he would be able to cool down a little bit. After all, the sun got nothing on his King in making Arthur hot and dizzy.

 


End file.
